Constitutional Carry Bill Heads To Idaho Governor

A constitutional carry bill has passed by overwhelming margins in the both the Idaho House and Senate, and is on the way to Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s desk to be passed into law.

A bill that would make it legal for Idaho citizens over the age of 21 to concealed-carry firearms within city limits has cleared the Idaho Legislature after the Idaho House voted 54-15 in favor of SB 1389. It’s now headed to the desk of Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter for his signature.

Three Republicans—Reps. Maxine Bell (R-Jerome), Richard Willis (R-Glenns Ferry) and Fred Wood (R-Burley)—joined 12 Democrats in voting against the bill that would also allow Idahoans ages 18-21 to concealed-carry firearms within city limits with a permit at the discretion of the local county sheriff.

If Otter signs the legislation into law within the next two weeks, Idaho will be the second state to implement legislation of this type in March alone.

The West Virginia legislature convincingly overrode the veto of Democrat Governor Earl Ray Tomblin in early March to add the state to the expanding list of states where citizens over the age of 21 may opt to carry a handgun openly or concealed without a permit, and where people 18-21 can carry with a permit.

Constitutional carry seems poised to be the next nationwide campaign to reestablish gun rights in the United States, similar to the way concealed carry spread across the country from the mid-1980s.

While I’m forced to merely speculate, I doubt that constitutional carry will take nearly as long to spread across the nation as concealed carry did, for the simple reason that the legislative support mechanisms of prominent gun rights groups are much more robust that they were thirty years ago, and the American public seems far more receptive to gun rights arguments as a whole.

I suspect that we’ll see constitutional carry legislation constantly being debated and discussed across the nation over the next decade, and I suspect that we’ll see much of the South and West adopt constitutional carry within the next decade to 15 years.